Review Blog

Jun 17 2015

You choose (series) by George Ivanoff

Random House Australia Children's, 2015.Night of the creepy carnival. Bk 5. ISBN 9780857986696Alien invaders from beyond the stars. Bk 6. ISBN
9780857986719
(Age: 9+) Highly recommended. When I received my first copies of
books from this series I road tested them on my grandson who is
somewhat of a reluctant reader. In fact, he was staying at my place,
picked them up and didn't put them down until he'd finished each. To
me that's a pretty fair indication of how they will be received in
your library. These latest two have gone to another young man who
might enjoy them and I await his response eagerly. I know I'm pretty
hopeless - I couldn't get past 3 choices until I was exterminated so
I hope he does better!
George has cleverly taken all the great aspects of gaming and
transformed them into book form where readers can challenge
themselves to achieve the end goal. While primarily aimed at Middle
Primary to Upper Primary these can be enjoyed by readers of all ages
and certainly, if you have readers who struggle these would be a
superb choice as the level of engagement and the appeal of the
subject matter are perfect. Readers will persist with their reading
quite naturally as they attempt to navigate their way through all
the pitfalls of each story.
Clowns are considered very sinister in our family so the Night
of the creepy carnival is well named and I didn't like being
caught out by them at all! Aliens are marginally less scary but
still enough to appeal to those readers who like a good safe fright.
I remember so well how my own girls used to love the 'choose your
own adventure' format (especially The famous five series!) and
think the timing of bringing this style of fast paced interactive
reading back to the attention of a new readership is perfect.
Highly recommended for readers aged around 9 and up. Do you have
what it takes?
Sue Warren